Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants…” Exodus 10:1

A wise scholar known as Ramban taught that the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that Pharaoh could freely choose to let Israel go or to retain them as slaves. Had the Lord not hardened Pharaoh’s heart, the plagues of trouble laid down on Egypt might have compelled Pharaoh to let the Israelites to go: not a freely chosen decision. And in the end, Pharaoh’s heart was so hard that he did send his chariots and charioteers after the Israelites.

Back to 2014 and the USA/Mexico border…

It was Pharaoh’s will to keep a foreign people, the Israelites, inside the Egyptian border as slaves, while Mr. Obama wants to sucker people from other lands through our border, into the USA, not as slaves per se but as easy-to-exploit workers.

Two opposite protests running in downtown NYC today, by Ground Zero, near City Hall, a few blocks from the World Trade Centers. In the map below, New Yorkers opposed to the boot-in-the-face mosque were at map icon A, the corner of Park and Broadway. Pro-Sharia mosque demonstrators were at map icon B.

If you look at the photos in the NY Daily News and NY Post websites, you will see a bunch of New Yorkers with mostly good old regular homemade picketing signs.What strikes me as 100% normal and kosher is that there are not many fancy pre-printed signs like one sees at labor rallies and political party events. Most of the signs in these photos are homely looking signs that will go in the scrapbook as "My First Protest."

That is a good thing to see, in my opinion.

It tells me that these are regular civilians speaking their voices, both groups. Hopefully everybody behaved themselves although in NYC, you never know! Eventually, there will be professional protesters, probably for the pro-Sharia group. But for today, this looks like a great demonstration. Free speech activity, 100%. USA!

In 1967, I was the radical Alinsky wrote the rules for. On the political cutting edge, I’d been arguing with fellow students and coworkers for years about Vietnam, and my growing disgust with my country led me down many winding roads of anti-American thought. I was counterculture before there was a name for it, skipping my prom and graduation as “bourgeois,” going barefoot, braless, and unshaven, and collecting tattoos at the only place in town those days — a crummy hole-in-the-wall next to downtown D.C.’s Greyhound station.

…On the morning of September 12, I left for the march with my camera. Since every picture’s worth a thousand words, I thought that would be the easiest and fastest way to communicate what really took place.

But what was going to take place? How many people would show? Though in my gut — with the latest victories of the new media over the old (Van Jones, ACORN) — I felt momentum building, I was really just one person going without a group, a strategy, or a plan…

All seemed informed and concerned, but cheerful and optimistic. I knew this feeling from before — it begins when you move from concern to action.
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The best sign in the gallery

Something I noticed from her photos: There were no black bloc of people wearing the black garb and black masks.

There must have been 1,000 tea party protesters standing outside in the 90 degree heat and they were agitated. There were now a few SEIU members outside, and they started to taunt the crowd. Not a very smart move, but they didn’t seem to care. A former marine with his young son on his shoulders told the crowd not to react to the taunting. The crowd outside started to sing “God Bless America.” This really seemed to ease the tension that was beginning to build outside the school.

He kept cool and got the crowd to stay cool in the face of thuggery. Having been in not a few tight situations just like this, I know how hard it can be to stay cool when everything is heating up around you. But this young man got the job done.

However, to the west in Iraq and to the east in Afghanistan, there have been a lot of happy voters. Completely different.

purple V for victory sign

senior citizen vote

civilians vote

three women voting

two women vote

young lad gets to vote

Except for that guy on far right — hasn’t had his coffee yet? — these folks are smiling. Good.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

From the PersianKiwi #Iranelection channel in Twitter, an interesting message:

If you catch militia – do not use violence do not kill him – treat him as your brother.

If they continue to follow this strategy, in my opinion, there is a real prospect for freedom. Cf. yesterday’s post, Ten commandments of nonviolence. made famous by Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and Dr. Martin Luther King.

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We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are established among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.